


Diplomacy

by PandoraTheExplorer



Series: Month of Drabbles Challenge 2018 [8]
Category: Super Dangan Ronpa 2
Genre: Angst, Canon Compliant, Character Study, Gen, sonia deserves more content yall
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-21
Updated: 2018-09-21
Packaged: 2019-07-15 08:16:48
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,315
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16059155
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PandoraTheExplorer/pseuds/PandoraTheExplorer
Summary: Sonia Nevermind has always had a way with words. But how much use does a diplomat have in a killing game?





	Diplomacy

**Author's Note:**

> Day 10 of my 2018 Month of Drabbles Challenge.

When Sonia Nevermind was five, she kept her twenty kidnappers entertained until she convinced them to send her back to Novoselic in a first-class jet clutching a suitcase of diamonds. When she was eight, she secured a trade deal between Novoselic and the United States which boosted Novoselic’s GDP by fifty percent within the first month. When she was eleven, she stopped a nuclear war with a tilt of her head and a few words from her lips. Her mother had asked her how she did it once. Sonia told her she said her “please’s” and “thank you’s.”

Sonia always found that she had a way with words. Of course, she had to if she wanted to be queen of Novoselic someday. Novoselic had the highest civilian to militia ratio of any country in the world, but its tiny size meant that a good leader must use words instead of brute force in foreign relations if she wanted her country to survive. Despite this, everyone was surprised when at age twelve; Princess Sonia Nevermind became the head of foreign relations in Novoselic.

There were people that called her the Ultimate Princess. Sonia thought that that would probably mean something a hundred years ago when there were more princesses in the world. It pained her to think that she only had this title from her birthright and not from any talent of her own. 

When she was accepted into a school in Japan because of this birthright, she didn’t feel the excitement that she thought she should have. Here was another prestigious school that wanted Sonia Nevermind not for her skills but for her bloodline. It was richer and better staffed than any school in her entire kingdom, but she was about to reject the invitation when it hit her.

Here was the best school in the world. Everyone who graduated from it was set for life. Sonia would have been set for life anyway, but Hope’s Peak Academy might take what skills she had and amplify it by tenfold. She had to go to this school. After all, wasn’t it a queen’s duty to become the best person she could for the subjects of her kingdom? Sonia proudly entered herself into Hope’s Peak Academy as the Ultimate Princess. If she was going to become a leader, she should try to grow fond of the position before the end of high school.

~

Except…in high school, Sonia didn’t get to lead. She led a group of girls onto the sandy beaches to enjoy themselves, but that was the end of it. When the black and white bear appeared and announced that she and her classmates will be killing each other, a Byakuya Togami immediately took charge. Sonia didn’t have to worry about protecting everyone anymore-someone else was doing that for her. This newfound freedom was almost euphoric.

And then Byakuya Togami was found lying face down under a table and covered in blood. Teruteru Hanamura was the killer. If Sonia had been aware of what Nagito Komaeda was planning, would she have been able to convince him to put his knife down? If Sonia had beaten Byakuya to taking charge, would she be the one lying face down on the wooden floor of the old hotel?

Sonia had disarmed bombs with her smile. She had stopped armies in their tracks with just a few words. She had saved millions of lives with a firm handshake and steady eye contact. So why could she not save the lives of two classmates?

~

After Teruteru was dropped into that volcano, Sonia decided that letting someone else take charge was a luxury she did not have. If she simply took absolute power over her class, there’s bound to be opposition. That was not the way Sonia Nevermind did things. A good princess-a good diplomat-was to find the core problem and to solve it while the smile on her face never wavers.

The core problem with this class was that they didn’t trust each other. That was a given, seeing how they’ve only known each other for a few days and one of their classmates just killed another. This class needed to do more activities together.

Sonia organized a “girl’s only” party. She took a page out of Byakuya’s book. People, as a general rule of thumb, loved having something in common with each other as a way to separate the “others” out. And considering the gender segregation of Japanese culture, what better way to unite half the class than to have a party? It was going to be on a beach in the bright daylight, with no circuits to break and no floorboards to stab through. When Hajime Hinata and Kazuichi Soda decided to tag along too, Sonia didn’t mind. As long as   
Kazuichi didn’t try to hit on her, she was happy to have more of the class along. Some of the girls were missing, but the classmates who were here were happy. What’s the worst that could happen?

~

The worst that could happen was Kazuichi finding the dead body of Mahiru Koizumi lying in front of a door in the beach house. As Sonia stared at the blood-soaked corpse, she wondered if Mahiru would still be alive right now if she had been more insistent that she joined her party.

At the trial, Ibuki Mioda revealed that she was going to go with Mahiru had she not already agreed to come to the party. So Mahiru’s death was all Sonia’s fault, then. If she’d never arranged this beach party Ibuki would have been there to stop Peko Pekoyama from swinging that deadly baseball bat and none of this would have happened.

Peko claimed that she was Sparkling Justice, the serial killer that Sonia admired so. Something was wrong. Sonia tried to say something, but her classmates all talked over her. She felt a rush of anger. Why weren’t they listening to her? Wasn’t she their princess?

Peko Pekoyama had been lying about being her friend the whole time. Fuyuhiko Kuzuryuu had been lying about his history with Peko. Hiyoko Saionji lied about small things, but those small things had almost gotten Sonia’s entire class killed. 

Sonia turned away as the straw robots on the screen plunged their swords deep into the body of Mahiru’s killer. She had seen through the lies of countless politicians and diplomats. Why couldn’t she see through the lies of her classmates?

~

Monokuma announced something he called the “despair disease.” Again, no one in the class was willing to lend their ear to what their princess had to say. Sonia decided then that if she was going to unite this class, she would have to start with individuals. And it seemed that most of the class was more than happy to be friends at Sonia’s request-except for one Hiyoko Saionji.

Hiyoko Saionji was a challenge, Sonia decided. The rest of her class had their differences, but they at least tried to get along, if only to survive. Hiyoko, on the other hand, had shut herself off from everyone. The only person exempt to her rotten attitude had her head split open with a metal bat.

Sonia wasn’t sure why she tried so hard to befriend this rude girl. Was it because she just enjoyed this challenge? Was it because she wanted everyone to get along that badly? Was it just out of pity for this girl who had lost the only person that cared about her on this island?

A day passed after Sonia told Hiyoko about that mirror in the studio. Ibuki hung from the ceiling. Hiyoko was strapped to a pillar. Once again, Sonia was responsible for the deaths of her friends. If only she had been kinder to Hiyoko. If only she’d volunteered to take care of her sick classmates with Mikan. If only she had done something.

~

Sonia gave up on being a good leader after Mikan left them. She would rather spend the night after the trial sitting on the beach, Gundham Tanaka at her side, chatting about hamsters or horror movies or demonic rituals. Gundham told her about the poison in his blood. Sonia smiled. Her blood was no good, either, not because of poison, but because of a family and responsibilities she was beginning to wish she never had.

If Kazuichi was glaring at her and Gundham angrily, then so be it. She was finished dancing around others with her words. Maybe if she was lucky, Kazuichi would realize that Sonia was no longer the perfect princess he thought she was.

~

Monokuma said that he was leaving Sonia and the others to starve to death in the Funhouse unless a dead body was found. Sonia decided then that she would accept her death with dignity. 

Had it been a week and a half ago, Sonia would have taken her own life at the first opportunity in order to free her classmates from starvation. A princess should not simply sit and watch her people suffer, nor should a princess ever take an innocent life. Sacrificing herself for her subjects would have been a great honor for the Ultimate Princess.

But these were Sonia’s classmates; not her subjects. Sonia was not their princess. She had long since decided that her title of princess had no use on this island, but that didn’t mean she was allowed to panic and scream like a child. She found that she cared about her classmates, and so Sonia resolved to keep them calm in their final moments, so that they could slip out of the world of living not with a shout, but with a whisper.

~

Nekomaru Nidai’s metallic parts lay scattered on the floor. Hajime and Nagito present argument after argument of Gundham’s guilt. In the end, not even Sonia could prevent the truth.

Gundham told her to keep living, so she promised to do just that. As she ran into the execution grounds to scoop up the Four Dark Devas of Destruction, she realized something: if she had not helped convince everyone to ride that roller coaster that brought them to the Funhouse, none of this would have happened.

Sonia always found that she had a way with words, but now she realized that her way was simply making the poison that poured out of her mouth taste sweeter. How many people had she led to the deaths of already?

~

Nagito Komaeda was planning to blow up the entire island. Sonia searched for the bombs along with the others. She wanted to save her own life, but she also wanted to save the lives of her classmates. That feeling of responsibility towards these other Ultimates has not gone away. But this time, instead of protecting them as their princess, Sonia would be protecting them as their friend.

When she saw the streams of fireworks shoot into the sky in colorful bursts, Sonia thought her heart would stop with relief. Now that she was certain she wasn’t going to blow up in the next few hours, she went to study the weaponry on the fifth island. If any of that equipment worked, Sonia planned to use her expertise to fight her way out of Jabberwok Island. After nine deaths, she hardly had any patience left over for words-sweet or poisonous. A princess did not point weapons at the innocent, but Monokuma was not innocent.

A fire started in the warehouse, resulting in the discovery of Nagito’s mangled body. Sonia knew she should have been horrified. Maybe she was, but that feeling of guilt that lingered after every previous death no longer lingered here. All these horrible injuries on Nagito’s body could not have been caused by her. She was only responsible for finding the killer of this case and bringing them to justice.

~

She was responsible for suggesting that her friends throw the fire grenades that killed Nagito Komaeda. Why couldn’t they have just poured water? They were on an island, for goodness sakes! Because of Sonia’s carelessness-because of her sweet words-everyone on this island was about to die.

She told everyone to vote for her. She was the one that suggested the fire grenades. She might as well have been Nagito’s killer. She wasn’t sure if she was so willing to sacrifice herself out of love or responsibility but it didn’t really matter anymore.

Chiaki Nanami suggests that she may be the traitor that threw the poisoned fire grenade. No, Sonia decided. She didn’t care if Chiaki was lying or not. This was the final straw. She couldn’t let another classmate-another friend die from her mistakes.

Chiaki wasn’t the traitor, Sonia declared. Sonia didn’t care that pointing out that she knew about the fake bombs made her more suspicious. She was ready to die. Over the past few weeks Sonia’s words have caused so many deaths. Her lack of words has caused so many deaths as well. Maybe this time she could use her words properly like she used to and save just one more life.

Hajime refuted her every argument. Sonia wasn’t sure when tears started pouring down her face, but she didn’t attempt to wipe them away. If she were still in Novoselic, these tears would have tarnished her image. Now, she didn’t care. 

Sonia stared at the screen in the trial room as it showed her images of Chiaki Nanami running desperately from her inevitable death. She was never going to be a princess again.   
She was never going to be a queen. She was just Sonia Nevermind, whose sweet and deadly words killed whether they were used or not.

~

Sonia always found that she had a way with words. With her charm and wit, she could almost control the world. She could save the lives of millions of strangers with her words, so why?

Why oh why, could she not save the lives of eleven innocent friends?

**Author's Note:**

> We don't get enough content with Sonia, y'know?


End file.
